Inside the Flyers: A silver lining to Coburn, MacDonald injuries
For the new-look Flyers, there is a silver lining to the injuries that have decimated their defense. Despite playing with a patchwork defense for at least the next month, their schedule during that span includes some weak opponents - including Edmonton, Florida (twice), and Colorado - and they should be able to remain respectable until Braydon Coburn and Andrew MacDonald return from injuries in about four weeks.
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For the new-look Flyers, there is a silver lining to the injuries that have decimated their defense.
Despite playing with a patchwork defense for at least the next month, their schedule during that span includes some weak opponents - including Edmonton, Florida (twice), and Colorado - and they should be able to remain respectable until Braydon Coburn and Andrew MacDonald return from injuries in about four weeks.
In addition, the Flyers will get a chance to see if the heralded Shayne Gostisbehere - a slick-skating defenseman who had three points and an amazing plus-7 rating while leading Union to a 7-4 win over Minnesota in the NCAA final last spring at the Wells Fargo Center - can make the quantum leap to the NHL.
Gostisbehere, who played three games this season for the Phantoms of the AHL before his NHL debut Saturday night against Detroit, will make watching the Flyers a lot more intriguing in the coming weeks.
But he will have the typical growing pains.
When top-pair defensemen Coburn and MacDonald return, the Flyers will have played about 18 games. It would be shocking if they had a winning record at that time, but they shouldn't be so far under .500 that it would make the rest of the season irrelevant.
Without Coburn and MacDonald, the Flyers are going to have to win a lot of high-scoring games.
"We'll have to rally around it," winger Wayne Simmonds said. "Each guy in here will just have to take a little more on their shoulders and try to carry the load collectively."
"We're a team here; it's not about forwards, defense, and the goalies," captain Claude Giroux said. "We have to stick together."
The injuries on defense, already depleted because of the loss of Kimmo Timonen (blood clots), will give "another opportunity for other guys to step up and take more responsibility," said defenseman Nick Grossmann, elevated to the team's top defensive unit with Mark Streit.
"We'll adjust," Grossmann said.
To compensate for the loss of MacDonald and Coburn, the Flyers will need to play as a five-man unit, supporting each other all over the ice. That's what they did in their impressive, 5-3 win in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the game in which MacDonald was injured blocking a shot.
Simmonds and Jake Voracek said the Flyers' mind-set should be to spend as much time as possible in their opponent's end.
"If you have the puck, they're not going to score, right?" Voracek said.
That said, the Flyers' defensive play has been lacking. Until the win in Pittsburgh, they had allowed too many odd-man rushes, failed to box out players in front of the net, and lost too many board battles.
The Flyers' defense has been much-maligned early in the season, and the team went into Saturday allowing 3.71 goals per game, 28th in the 30-team NHL.
Luke Schenn ignores the critics who have been bashing the team's defense - even before it was shorthanded because of injuries.
"I don't pay too much attention to that," he said. "There's a thousand different opinions out there, whether good, bad, or in between. I think in this room, everyone feels they're playing for each other, no matter who's paired with who. I think everyone's pretty confident out there."
Schenn, a former Maple Leaf, said that if you get caught up in the "outside noise," it gets "pretty distracting. And this is minor compared to Toronto."
The Flyers will probably play 10 more games without Coburn and MacDonald. During that time, going 5-5, staying afloat in the Metropolitan Division, and finding out more about Gostisbehere's game seem like reasonable goals.
"In this game, there are injuries all the time. . . . We're going to deal with it and go play," coach Craig Berube said. "We've got capable guys. Coburn's been out for a while, anyhow. Everybody will pick up the slack."
If they don't, if they are buried in the standings when their top defensemen return, this season will have a different feel, one that could put the Flyers in the talk for the Connor McDavid/Jack Eichel sweepstakes. Both centers are regarded as can't-miss prospects who are expected to go 1-2 in the June draft.
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